University of Chihuahua Students Visit Alamito Valley

Six students enrolled in the University of Chihuahua in Chihuahua City, Mexico, participated in an exchange program with Sul Ross State University in early June 2022. On Monday, June 6, the group visited Alamito Ranch and Alamito Creek Preserve south of Marfa. Mr. Garey Willbanks welcomed the students and provided an overview of grazing and habitat management on Alamito Ranch. Then Dr. Carlos Gonzalez and Aaron Gonzalez of Sul Ross led the group as they viewed a grazing exclosure, a game camera stream stream gauge, and the soil/weather monitoring station. Alamito Ranch and Alamito Creek Preserve both occur in the Desert Grassland vegetative zone where grasses and shrubs co-dominate the plant community.

The group then proceeded a few miles south of Alamito Ranch to the Alamito Creek Preserve (Dixon Water Foundation’ s Property) and ate lunch in the shade of some large cottonwood trees. Later they viewed a video clip of floodwater in Alamito Creek recorded by the initial game camera stream gauge. Next the students saw a series of trincheras. Trincheras consist of gravel and cobbles stacked across small fingertip watercourses to slow water runoff and to trap sediment. As porous structures, trincheras allow the water to pass through, filtering debris, reducing the velocity of runoff, and allowing water to infiltrate and sediment to accumulate. The trinchera at Alamito Creek Preserve shows sediment accumulation and grass establishment on the upstream side.

In mid-afternoon the students rode to Marfa to observe the Mimms Ranch where the students saw Mixed Prairie grasslands dominated by blue grama, black grama, and cane bluestem with very few shrubs. The Mimms Ranch implements two very distinct methods of livestock grazing. Part of the ranch is continuously grazed yearlong by cattle. Grasses receive no break from grazing throughout the year. Another larger part of the ranch is cross-fenced into about 360 pastures. Cattle are moved into a pasture where they graze for a day, then are rotated to the next pasture. With this method, grasses receive a yearlong rest before being grazed again, for a single day.

Overall, we had a great day with the students majoring in Ecology and Animal Science at the University of Chihuahua.